Day 19 - Saturday 27th April

Our tour of Sicily doesn't start until this evening and so we were able to sleep in this morning. I was pleased that I was able to sleep OK last night. My right side was still sore from my fall yesterday morning.

When I checked my weather app this morning it said the forecast for Palermo was a minimum of 12C and a maximum of 18C but it was already 18C.

We went to breakfast at 9am which is on level 4 in this hotel. They had a reasonable range of choices but nowhere near as extensive as we'd been used to on the cruise ship and there was no chef to cook eggs or omelettes.

At about 11am, we set off to explore the streets of Palermo. Suzy had planned a route that would take us through some of the shopping districts. Along the way, we saw some impressive buildings and plazas.

You needed to have your wits about you when crossing the street. Drivers don't stop at pedestrian crossings - they just drive around you. Often they don't even stop at pedestrian crossings that have lights.

There are numerous narrow lane ways containing cafes and street market stalls. Even though the lane ways are narrow, there were still motorbikes riding through. There were also gypsy beggars asking for money.

After a while we stumbled across a wider street that had probably been closed off for the day to become a street full of market stalls. It was quite busy. In the distance at both ends of the street, you could see the mountains surrounded by high cloud.

Just before we turned back towards our hotel, we walked past the opera house that we will be visiting tomorrow as part of our tour. Interestingly, there were police vehicles at both ends of the plaza in front of the building.

Close to our hotel we found a little cafe for lunch (Monti). It was a struggle to place our order because they spoke little English. Our waiter was very helpful but the lady owner was grumpy.

Suzy had made an appointment to have a massage, pedicure and manicure in the hotel at 2pm. Later in the afternoon, we went for a walk to the local general store. This is a small supermarket that mainly sells food and drink. Surprisingly they don't sell toothpaste.

The first event for our Secret Italia tour was a welcome drink in the hotel lounge at 6pm. There we met our tour guide, Luca, and one of the tour group owners, Katherine. There are fourteen guests altogether in the group.

Luca introduced himself and then got each of us to introduce ourselves. There is one other couple from Sydney, one couple from New Zealand, one lady from Canada and the remainder are from the USA including two more single women.

Next Luca took us for a walk through the streets of Palermo to our restaurant for this evening's meal, Osteria Ballaro. This restaurant has great style and atmosphere. They provided us with a five course meal which was more than most of us needed or could eat. I found the options limited.

We spent the evening chatting to Scott and Cathy who come from Houston. They seem to be keen travellers. At the end of the meal, the four of us got a taxi back to the hotel whereas the others walked. It was about 11pm by the time we got to bed.